A Meeting of Doctors
by Snorcackle
Summary: The Doctor and Martha go adventuring and inadvertently bump into an old friend.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own these characters, which is probably for the best, because, if I did, Terminus would never have happened, and the entire plot would have never progressed from the fifth Doctor and Nyssa travelling around the universe together.

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The hallway of the space station was dull and gray. Nothing particularly splendid, not by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, one might have mistaken it for something of a cargo hold, if one did not know better. Its current inhabitants, however, knew it quite well to be a hospital ship, and one of the best in the galaxy at that. Had anyone been in the third corridor from the far starboard side, they might have been quite shocked to see a large blue telephone box suddenly materialize before them.

Fortunately, no one was there, and few were close enough to hear the wheezing of the landing gear. Those who were quickly passed it off as sounds from the engine.

They might have been more shocked still had they seen the two people who subsequently stepped out of the box. The first was a tall, thin, pale man in a blue pinstripe suit and a long tan trench coat. His dirty white trainers thudded quietly against the metallic floor of the hallway as he strode out of the blue box with tremendous energy. The second was a smaller, dark-skinned girl, whose straightened black hair stuck out at all angles from the twist it was in on the back of her head. Her dark red leather jacket stood out sharply against the gray of the walls.

The girl spoke first. "Doctor, where are we now?" she asked as she examined the nondescript area around her.

"Haven't the foggiest," her companion replied as he cracked a smile, ignoring the roll of her eyes. "Figured it'd be worth exploring anyways. 'Sides, Martha, the whole point of having a spaceship is to explore. What fun'd it be if we knew where we were exploring all the time?" His smile widened, causing the corners of his brown eyes to crease. "Allons-y!"

And so Martha and the Doctor continued down the corridors, which twisted and turned, knocking things out of place as they went in place of trailing breadcrumbs behind them. They eventually reached a set of doors -very large, intimidating doors, at that- which were guarded by two rather fragile looking men in pristine white suits. The doors bore a large "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" sign. Martha looked up at the Doctor, for, if there was one thing he couldn't resist, it was an "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" sign.

Sure enough, the corners of his mouth were twitching, trying and failing to hide his excitement. As he approached the doors with long strides, one of the guards held up a hand. "Name, sir?"

"Well, this is Martha, and I'm the Doctor?"

"Doctor who, sir?" the guard asked, raising a wispy eyebrow. "This is a hospital ship, or perhaps you weren't aware. There are many doctors, or had you forgotten that detail?"

"Right, sorry." The Doctor grinned as he whipped out a black leather wallet with a piece of paper in it. "Doctor John Smith" –he swung the wallet behind his back, and handed it to Martha furtively- "and this is Doctor Martha Jones." The girl smiled as she waved the piece of paper to the side of her face. With that, the guards nodded and let them past. As the two passed through the enormous doors, the Doctor leaned over to Martha and whispered, "Gotta love the psychic paper."

Martha grinned as she dashed down the hallway behind him. Running with him was always an interesting event, bordering on the Olympic, but she could certainly never say she was bored. She was taken rather aback when the Doctor stopped suddenly in front of a door. She knew she oughtn't to be, of course; after all, when did something _not_ strike the Doctor's fancy?

"Hold on, just a mo'," the tall man mumbled, his mouth hanging open. He pulled a pair of spectacles out of his breast pocket, promptly adjusting them over his nose as he read and re-read the plaque in front of him. His eyebrows knotted in confusion. "What?"

Having stopped to join him, Martha peered over his shoulder. The plaque read, _DR. NYSSA TREMAS, PH. D._ "Nyssa Tremas? Who's that?" She could only assume the Doctor knew this other mysterious doctor whose office they'd approached.

"Well, we'll find out, won't we?" He didn't bother knocking on the plain gray door before entering. "Nyssa?" he shouted tentatively as he strode into the room. As Martha peered from behind him, she could see a broad chestnut desk, behind which a woman in a white lab coat sat.

The woman behind the desk –whom Martha presumed was Dr. Tremas- looked up at the sound of the Doctor's voice. "Yes? And who's asking?" Her deep brown curls framed her concerned face –not frightened, Martha noted, but still curious.

The Doctor's grin spread wide. "Ah! Nyssa!" He was positively beaming. "It's me! It's the Doctor! I've regenerated, mind you; 'bout five times since I last saw you, but, look at you!" His smile faded as she continued to stare at him perplexedly. Martha couldn't blame her. "You don't believe me, do you?" He ran a hand through his already ruffled hair, trying to think of proof. His eyes sparkled just a bit when he thought of it. "The TARDIS! It's just a few corridors back. Big blue phone box; can't miss it!"

Dr. Tremas' face broke into a smile at the sound of those words, and she promptly got up from her seat behind the desk. "It really is you, isn't it?" she asked, slightly bewildered. As she took him into an embrace, she added, "I honestly thought I'd never see you again."

"Nor I you," the Doctor added as he took a step back. "I knew you'd be alright, though. You're brilliant, you are." He cracked another smile before he looked back at Martha. "Oh, sorry, I'm being rude. I haven't introduced the two of you yet. Nyssa, this is my very dear friend Martha, and, Martha, this is a very old friend of mine, Nyssa." He giggled a little bit as he added, "I knew her all the way back when I was still wearing that scarf."

A voice suddenly rocked through the room. "A mysterious object has been located on Floor Six, Corridor Seven W. Security would like to request that all staff and visitors who have any knowledge about a large, wooden blue box with the words POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX written across the top, please congregate on Floor Six, Corridor Seven W immediately. Thank you." The Doctor's eyes widened as he suddenly dashed out of the room, grabbing the psychic paper he had used earlier from Martha's hand as she laughed at him.

"I see he's still getting the TARDIS towed, as per usual," Nyssa said as she broke into a smile. "I suppose some things never change, do they?"

"Not likely to anytime soon," Martha responded. "How'd you say you knew him again?"

"He took me in after the Traken Union was destroyed. You see, Traken was my home planet, and the death toll was in the billions, including my mother and father. I had nowhere else to go." She offered a sad smile, cheering up slightly when she offered Martha a question in return. "And how did he find you?"

"My hospital got sent to the moon –er, Earth's moon, that is," Martha began before Nyssa interrupted.

"Your hospital?" she asked, smiling. "Are you a doctor as well?"

"Not yet, no, but I'm working on it." Martha grinned from ear to ear. "I reckon you travelled with the Doctor a while ago, yeah?"

"Yes, I did. Well, for _me_, it hasn't been all that long. A few years. But, if what he said to me earlier was true, I suspect it's been quite a while for him. Given the fact that Tegan and Turlough are both gone-"

Now it was Martha's turn to interrupt. "Who?"

"Tegan and Turlough." When this response was met with confusion on Martha's part, Nyssa continued. "I suppose it must have been a while, if you haven't heard of them. I understand that were several others before _I_ came aboard, but I can't remember most of their names. I think I vaguely remember him mentioning a Romana once or twice."

"Funny. The only one I ever hear about is Rose." Martha rolled her eyes as she repeated this fact.

"I can't recall that name. He must have travelled with her rather recently."

"Yep." A thought suddenly occurred to Martha. "What made you leave? You don't seem to be trapped anywhere. You're still sane and alive and all. What made you give a life of travelling about the universe up?"

Nyssa took a deep breath before responding. "It had been a particularly frightening day for me, I suppose. I'd nearly died that day, and I'd seen enough deaths of those I held close to my heart that it was time for me to move on. We were… well, actually, we were on this ship, Terminus. It was masquerading as a medical facility, and, now, thanks to my help, it really _is_ one." She smiled.

Quite suddenly the bright blue box Martha had been travelling –the same blue box that Nyssa _remembered_ travelling in- materialized in the room, right next to where they were standing, and the Doctor popped his head out. "Sorry 'bout that. Nearly got the whole wing blown up. So," he said, turning to Nyssa as he stepped out of the box again, "fancy a spin around the universe?"

"I'm afraid not, Doctor," she said as his face fell just a bit. "I've got a job to do here, you know."

He nodded solemnly at her before smiling again, the lines around his eyes crinkling as they had earlier. He held out his arms for another embrace, which she gladly entered into. Before she let go, she left a kiss on his cheek. As he smiled and turned back to the TARDIS, Nyssa grabbed Martha's arm lightly. "Will you promise me something? Will you please make sure that, if you leave by choice, he doesn't travel alone for too long? He's been through a lot in his years, and he gets lonely. Look after him, won't you?"

Martha gave a smile and nod before giving Nyssa a hug as well. She, too, disappeared into the blue telephone box, which in turn disappeared from the office. As she sat back down behind her desk, Nyssa reflected on her own time spent in the TARDIS, hoping, for Martha's sake, that her inevitable departure would be an easier decision than hers was.

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**AN:** Putting my notes at the end just this once, because I wanted to clarify things but I didn't want to spoil. I chose the surname 'Tremas' for Nyssa because I think she would have wanted to honor her father, rather than let his legacy die by his body being taken over by the Master. I also really wanted to write Martha and Nyssa together because I feel that they are very similar in a lot of ways. For one thing, I fully believe that Nyssa harbored feelings for the Doctor, and, while I like to write shippy fics about the two, it's probably not very likely that he would openly reutrn feelings for her. Obviously the same went for Martha. Not to mention that they both leave and presumably become practitioners of medicine. Reviews are always appreciated!


End file.
